1. Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to the art of electrical-tap connectors and, particularly to a stamped electrical-tap connector assembly having a wire-receiving portion at one end and a blade-receiving portion at the other end.
2. Description of Related Art
In the modern digital era, for the system functioning well, the individual device or signal or electricity need to be connected together. Therefore, it needs many connectors to connect the above.
Many electrical connectors or terminals have been designed for receiving or mating with a male tab or blade contact. Such electrical connectors or terminals often are used in tap connectors for making a T-connection to an insulated electrical wire. In such connectors, one end of the terminal includes an insulation displacement terminal(i.e. IDT), wire-receiving portion, and the opposite end of the terminal includes a mating or blade-receiving portion.
Design considerations for these terminals must take into account the differing requirements for both sides of connections. On consideration of designing the insulation displacement end of the terminal, sufficient resistance is necessary against wire pulled-out, and sufficient integrity in the material thickness should be configured to displace the insulation without cutting the conductors and without allowing the insulation displacing slots to open. On consideration of designing the blade-receiving end of the terminal, the factors of a material thickness which does not take a set and which carries maximum current is necessary. General design-considerations, such as minimizing material waste and simplifying the design and manufacture of the terminals, also are important. According to the number of factors to be considered, most tap connectors often use stamped and formed terminals.
In a prior art, one type of stamped and formed terminal for connecting an insulated wire to a blade contact is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,089, referring to the FIG. 1, it includes an integrally formed insulated housing (20) which mounts a generally U-shaped metal sheet (22) therein for mating with a blade contact (14) which has a generally centrally located locking recess or aperture (30) therein. As seen in FIG. 2, the characteristic of the tap connectors is that the U-shape of the terminal (22) is defined by a pair of leg portions joined by a bight portion. The bight portion has an offset portion (46, 46a, 46b) which has a locking projection (48) therein for tightly engaging the locking recess (30) of the blade contact. Although the configuration of the generally U-shaped terminal provides the maximum current-carrying capacity of the terminal, the design of the offset portion (46, 46a, 46b) provides an uneven contact while the blade contact (14) is in mating engagement with the offset portion (46) of the blade-receiving terminal (22), thus reducing the reliability of the U-shaped terminal.
The present invention directed to solve these problems of prior invention provides an improved tap connector assembly not only to maximize the current-carrying capacity but also to increase the reliability and lifetime of the terminal by solving the problem of uneven contact.